1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communications terminals and, more specifically, to a communications terminal for transmitting data retrieved by executing an application to a server.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, a system constructed by a WWW (World Wide Web) server and a client has been suggested, wherein execution of an application is related to data transmission between the server and the client. In such a system, information about a result of executing an application is transmitted from a client's terminal to the server, or data stored in the terminal is transmitted to the server by using a dedicated application.
One example of the above is a system where the application to be executed at the terminal is a game application, and the information indicating the result of executing the game application is a score obtained in the game. Specifically, the terminal transmits, as the result of executing the game, information about the score in the game to the server. Upon receiving the score, the server updates information about the user's records of the game. The information about the user's records becomes public through a Web page, or is returned to the terminal that transmitted the score.
Another example of the above is a system where data stored in the terminal, such as schedule information or telephone directory information, is uploaded to the server. This uploading is carried out by using a dedicated application stored in the terminal for transmitting the data to the server.
In the above system, the data transmission processing from the terminal to the server (hereinafter simply referred to as data transmission process) is specified in the application that carries out the processing. In other words, the application previously incorporates information about what data to be transmitted to the server, which format is used for transmission, to which server the data is transmitted, and other information. By following the incorporated information, the application carries out the data transmission process. Note that, in some cases, the above data transmission processing may be determined by a user's input. In such cases, the user has to specify data to be transmitted to the server, a transmission format, and a destination server, which is quite burdensome.
In the above conventional system, to change the data transmission process, the application itself has to be changed. This is because the application previously incorporates the information about the data transmission process. Consequently, a new application has to be installed in each terminal. For this reason, changing the data transmission process is very difficult in the conventional system.
For example, for changing a game application so as to transmit to the server not only the score of the game but also a name of a player, a new application has to be installed in each terminal. The application itself also has to be changed for changing the format of the data to be transmitted to the server or the server that should receive the data.
Furthermore, the application stored in the conventional terminal includes data about the data transmission process, thereby increasing the data size of the application. This increase is a significant drawback to a terminal having relatively small memory, such as a cellular phone.